Rothenberg: Obama Looms Large Over Democrats' 2014 Fight to Retain the Senate

The odds are against Senate Democrats this cycle. But, of course, they were against the party two years ago at this time, and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil didnít merely beat the odds ó he slaughtered them.

This time, Democrats face better prospects of holding onto their Senate majority next November than they did two years ago (after all, they begin with 55 seats instead of 53), but a net loss looks inevitable and a big loss is quite possible. Cecil, who is back for a return engagement this cycle, has his work cut out for him.

The biggest factor in how the cycle turns out probably isnít candidate recruiting, fundraising or the number of open seats, though each will affect the fight for the Senate next year. It is almost certainly going to be President Barack Obamaís popularity and the electorateís sense of how he is doing.

Democrats went into the 2012 cycle defending 23 Senate seats to the GOPís 10 seats, and the landscape of that Senate class ó races in Massachusetts and Maine, but also in North Dakota, Missouri, Virginia, Florida and Montana ó certainly favored Republicans.

This cycle, the numbers arenít quite as asymmetric, but with 21 Democratic seats and only 14 Republican seats up for election, the GOP once again begins with an advantage.

Unlike 2012, when Democrats started with at least two serious takeover opportunities, in Massachusetts and Nevada , this cycle the party lacks any good takeover opportunities (before retirements). That reality, combined with a landscape that includes a number of Democratic seats in very conservative states (West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alaska and South Dakota), makes for an ever greater initial Democratic headache than at the start of last cycle.

With Senate contests next year in four strongly anti-Obama states, Democrats canít afford a second Obama midterm election with a national electorate that wants to send a message of dissatisfaction with the president.

Obama carried just 35.5 percent of the vote in West Virginia, 36.9 percent in Arkansas, 39.9 percent in South Dakota, 40.6 percent in Louisiana, 40.8 percent in Alaska and 41.7 percent in Montana last year. While voters were able to split their tickets in 2012 and vote against Obama but for Democratic Senate nominees such as Joe Manchin III in West Virginia or Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, voters wonít be able to do the same thing in 2014.

The president isnít on the ballot next year, so the only way for anti-Obama voters to express their opinion of the president is to vote against his partyís Senate nominees. And that makes Senate seats in anti-Obama states in 2014 much more difficult to hold than Senate seats in anti-Obama states were in 2012.

An overly ambitious ó and overly liberal ó agenda coming from the White House, which looks like a distinct possibility, could undermine the Democratsí chances of holding onto Senate seats in states where Obama performed poorly in both 2008 and 2012.

Still, last yearís elections certainly proved that candidates and campaigns matter, and if all else fails for Democrats, the party can probably figure on Republican primary voters screwing up in at least a couple of states and producing nominees so weak that Democrats can steal a seat or two, as they have done during the past two elections.

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March 13, 2015

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., right, hugs Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, after the Congressman spoke at the IAFF's Legislative Conference General Session at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, March 9, 2015. The day featured addresses by members of Congress and Vice President Joe Biden.